I’m going to try to start blogging again!It’s been a long time since I was in a good blogging rhythm, and I’m going to try to start doing it again :-) In preparation for this, I put together an outline of an output-driven set of milestones around product, that takes you from zero to a P/M fit product thats ready to scale on marketing/tech/etc.

As far as I can tell, this is all standard fare for companies in Silicon Valley. My desire to write these posts is ultimately about documenting what’s working for people and spreading the knowledge beyond Palo Alto, CA :-) All of these topics are ultimately derived by both my own projects as well as my advisory roles at venture-backed startups. (Some of these are listed here)

bonus points for baked-in distribution, monetization, etc. but don’t let this lead the idea!!!

usually one killer feature (not a bunch of features)

prototype: Landing page

what’s a good landing page experiment?

headlines, copywriting, hero shot, etc.

unique URLs

anti-patterns:

“someone’s already done this” (desire for originality)

monetization/strategy-driven product ideas

technology in search of a market

“Wall Street” markets

lumping yourself into an aspirational market

comprehensive featureset done poorly

Paper/Wireframe prototype

Designing the initial product

go for the minimum desirable product

might work :-)

the central design intention drives the product design

supports only the core use case, as minimum as possible

core UX should be 2-3 pages

limited functionality, done well. “Less but better”

Should build bare bone prototype in less than 2 weeks (really!)

flow-based product design

user quotes, then fill in with UI

low-fidelity prototyping tools

easier and cheaper to make changes

fix defects earlier (Toyota lean manufacturing model)

engineers always want to prototype in code, but then sunk-cost fallacy

get feedback from people and iterate

prototype: Core user flows, mocked up and ready to build

anti-patterns:

“database-up” design

feature creep and low product self-esteem (v1 should look like a feature!)

comprehensive featureset all of it done poorly

lots of pet features that don’t fit into the core design intention

Code prototype

Coding the initial product

build the prototype as fast as possible

fill in any blanks left out of the prototype

use the product yourself, iterate on it while keeping with the core design intention

focus on key flows and prioritize over ancillary ones

don’t worry about corner cases

get it ready to be used by other people

prototype: Live product, usable by other people

anti-patterns:

taking too long

losing focus of the central design intention

not adjusting based on intuition and usage

overarchitecting, trying to make it scalable or modular or future-proofing in general

Friends and family alpha testing

private beta goals

clean up core experience

make product usable over multiple visits

validate the core design intention

not scalable

recruiting friends and family

focus on retention

are users coming back?

recruiting random people

Find people from the existing market, rejectors, and outside the market

Learn from extreme users

Craigslist

Usertesting

user testing

do they get it?

how would you describe this to a friend?

usability – remove the friction

would they switch? (for existing market users)

Net promotor score

interpreting user feedback and learning to say “no”

which users fall into the target market? Hear them out

which users don’t? It’s OK (and maybe even good!) to have them reject

try not to add new features unless absolutely necessary

what features can you remove that aren’t part of the core?

prototype: Simple product, polished by real use

anti-patterns

Delusion- it’s not working but you think it is

Melancholy from user testing

Adding features without interpreting

Adding features that violate core design intention

Listening to out-of-market users

is it working?

people understand the product

some subset of your users like it and use it

you like it :-)

Random people beta testing

traffic testing goals

start polishing your onboarding flow

develop options for distribution

build some basic stats infrastructure

not meant to be scalable

User acquisition tactics

ads

PR + launch page + slow stream

partnerships

power through it

Collecting feedback

surveys

help and problems

recruit users to talk to

prototype: Spreadsheet for signup flow, more polished signup flow

is it working?

signups are happening

people are going through the core flow

retention/recurring usage from target users

product still works for you, and your friends/family

User flow optimization

model your usage and figure out your core drivers

this is completely product specific

two examples- daily deal versus a chat site

whats your “metric of love?”

prototype your funnel – explore!

flow chart

excel

SQL

formalize/finalize with dashboards

identify major bottlenecks for why the product’s not working

start at the beginning of the flow

fix bottlenecks with A/B tests

is it working?

how do the metrics compare to the usage model?

10% signup

+1 day retention and +1 week retention

DAU/MAU

anti-patterns:

trying to fix problems in core UX when signup is the problem

over-architecting stats infrastructure

trying to use a generic analytics product to answer situational questions

Ready to scale?

Hopefully the major checkboxes are checked – at this point you’d have:

Huge market

Differentiated product

Product makes sense to normal people

Product is working for IRL people

Product is working for non-IRL people

Well-understood and optimized user flows

Ready to scale up

Non-scaleable marketing, tech, and otherwise- that’s fine

Now scale everything else :-)

Crisis, terror, and melancholy

Is it good enough?

Nobody likes my product!

My product is a mess!

It’s taking too long!

Investors hate my product!

I’m iterating in circles!

When to work on a completely new idea?

Iterations are getting diminishing returns and people still don’t love the product

Final note: Thanks to my friends who helped review and add to this: Vinnie at Yipit, Alex at Penzu, Rob Fitzpatrick, Kevin at Hyperink, Jamie/Justin at Mocospace, Ada/Sachin at Connected, Noah at Appsumo, Jason at Kima, and the other folks who helped